Photo was taken at the Dominican Ecology Centre and Organic Farm, Wicklow Town, Co.Wicklow (Irl)

Pigs just love company, are playful and simply adorable. These pigs really are living it up. They can roam freely in their own paddock, the can nose the ground at will, they can shelter from the elements if they want, they can play when they want and it’s all part of the benefits of living on an organic farm.

Thought on Friday – April – 18/04/2008

‘We bless our God with praise and song, who brings our soul to life and keeps our feet from faltering.’ ~Psalm 66:8-9

Frosts are always a problem at this time of year when many plants push forth new buds and leaves. In the middle of winter such frosts make little difference because many plants when dormant could survive temperatures of -196C if they could go that low. But these plants will die at -3C when growing. That’s why frosts during April are always bad news for gardeners. Frosts in our spiritual lives represent a lot of negative stuff from knocks in life, bitterness, hatred, nasty words spoken to us, unfair criticism and so on. Like a frost causing havoc in a garden when everything is beginning to flourish, so it can be with us too and the temptation is to give up. The psalmist who wrote the above line many thousands of years ago was putting a gentle reminder across, how God encourages us, lifts us up and fills us with hope even when the frosts are biting around us.